I love to read about odd and strange phenomenon in our large universe. The one I read the other day is on Molecular Cloud Barnard 68.
This ‘hole’ among the stars is what is called a dark molecular cloud where the concentration of dust and gas is so dense that is shuts out practically all the visible light from background stars (it’s possible to see through them in infrared light, though). Barnard 68 is a classic example of this.
Because no stars are visible in the center indicates the cloud is rather nearby, with current calculations placing it about 500 light-years away and approximately half a light-year across. It’s not known how these cold clouds form, but it is known that the clouds are places new stars can form.
Small article at Astronomy Picture of the Day
Plot bunnies anyone? Of isolated suns in the midst of a dark molecular cloud? Of a ship trapped inside?
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J.A. Marlow
Coffee Cup Dreams
She wasn’t supposed to wake up when dead…
During what should have been a simple operation, Tish Douglas died. And yet, she also awoke… in what the doctors called a ‘psi event.’
Despite having no memory of the incident, it means she’s required to go on a life-time course of debilitating drugs designed to reign in her supposedly new psi gifts. She’s left with the option of existing on Earth in a drug-haze, or leave the planet.
When an opportunity for a good paying job on a space station known as Redpoint One is offered, she jumps at the chance. Even though she doesn’t have any experience as a ‘maintenance engineer.’ Even though the station sits in the middle of nowhere, a still-operating construct of a long-gone alien species.
Between pirate attacks, intelligent repair robots, and maintenance emergencies, Tish must find a place for herself.
All complicated by a growing attraction to the one person on the station she can’t have: boss Arthur Getty.
A stand-alone 48400 word, 193 page (approximate), science fiction romance novel.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords
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I wonder how many planets are hidden inside the cloud cover, just waiting for a star to form and warm up the hidden planets once the dust is compressed. The more I learn, I realise we know so very little about the wide spaces between star systems.
Maybe a rogue planet flung off out of another solar system? Many mechanism could cause that. I do wonder if anyone has written up the formation of a planet outside of a solar system. Brown dwarfs aren’t much bigger and warmer than large Jupiters, but there we would be talking about gas giants. Hmm, well, maybe have one form around a brown dwarf? Or a large Jupiter that doesn’t quite get to the size of a small sun?
So many possibilities.
An amazing phenomena, considering that so much of space is filled with starlight and we really have to look hard for places devoid of it.